"
Wolf got a little respite from his miseries by going to stay a few weeks
in his own country with his brother-in-law, Strasser, an inspector of
taxes.[186] He took with him his books, his poets, and began to set them
to music.
[Footnote 186: Wolf's letters to Strasser are of great value in giving
us an insight into his artist's eager and unhappy soul.]
* * * * *
He was now twenty-seven years old, and had as yet published nothing. The
years of 1887 and 1888 were the most critical ones of his life. In 1887
he lost his father whom he loved so much, and that loss, like so many of
his other misfortunes, gave fresh impulse to his energies. The same
year, a generous friend called Eckstein published his first collection
of _Lieder_. Wolf up to that time had been smothered, but this
publication stirred the life in him, and was the means of unloosing his
genius. Settled at Perchtoldsdorf, near Vienna, in February, 1888, in
absolute peace, he wrote in three months fifty-three _Lieder_ to the
words of Eduard Moerike, the pastor-poet of Swabia, who died in 1875, and
who, misunderstood and laughed at during his lifetime, is now covered
with honour, and universally popular in Germany.
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